How are spent the money provided to Azerbaijan as assistance?

Baku/24.08.21/Turan: On August 23, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided assistance to member states to meet long-term global needs and sustainable development. The Fund has allocated a total of US $ 650 billion to member countries in the form of SDRs (Special Drawing Rights), an artificial reserve and payment instrument issued by the IMF (loan to the IMF - Ed. note). Azerbaijan will also receive 391.7 million SDR as assistance (about $ 555.7 million or 944.54 million manat).

These funds can be used to support the national economy and fight the crisis. However, what are the funds provided to Azerbaijan spent on in order to provide assistance?

The economist and leader of the Azerbaijan Movement for Democracy and Welfare, Gubad Ibadoglu, answers this and other questions in the "Difficult Question" program.

According to him, today the IMF is concerned about the state of the global economy due to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the coronavirus, established trends have formed, one of which is inflationary processes in a number of countries.

“As you know, in connection with the pandemic, the raw materials market, and in particular the oil market, experienced a serious recession, which, of course, could not but affect other markets. Therefore, the IMF is concerned about inflationary processes going on in many countries, which can lead to stagnation in the world economy and, in particular, the economies of individual countries,” the economist said.

In his opinion, it is this circumstance that prompted the IMF to provide assistance to member countries of this organization in order to meet the long-term global need for reserves, increase confidence, strengthen the resilience and stability of the world economy and help countries experiencing liquidity shortages to overcome the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Assistance is provided in proportion to the shares of the participating countries' quotas in the Fund.

“Azerbaijan will receive assistance in the amount of about 1 billion manats. This is not so much money, considering that the revenues of the state budget of Azerbaijan for 2021 are projected at 25 billion 427 million manats, and expenditures - 28 billion 543 million manats. At the same time, these are not such small means. Since the amount of funds spent from the state budget on COVID, we are talking about direct costs, did not reach a billion. If this aid is distributed fairly and transparently, it will contribute to the solution of a number of economic problems and become a source of overcoming unwanted complications,” the expert said.

According to Gubadoglu, the use of funds allocated to Azerbaijan is not transparent. “Unfortunately, this is confirmed by numerous reports of international organizations. In the ratings of susceptibility to corruption, Azerbaijan also consistently receives a high index. The same can be said for budget transparency. The results of the annual international budget project “Open Budget Index” indicate the lack of transparency in the budget of Azerbaijan, ”he said.

The economist believes that the results of these reports form a strong opinion that corruption is rampant in Azerbaijan. “Unfortunately, over the years, these problems are not only not being solved, but even more aggravated,” the expert complains. –0--